From the Mount to Munich: Brainwaves in Mental Health

December 16, 2015

Mount Saint Vincent University Psychology professor and
researcher Dr.
Derek Fisher exudes pride and enthusiasm as he talks about the great strides his students and
colleagues at the Mount are making in science.

“I do EEG research. Meaning I put a cap on people’s heads and see what their
brain does under different conditions,” Derek smiles. “That is the core of what
I do.” EEG stands for electroencephalogram, and it is a methodology-driven
approach to studying the electrical activity of the brain.

International recognition

At a conference in Munich, Germany in September 2015, Derek was bestowed a
Young Investigator Award by the EEG & Clinical Neuroscience Society. The award recognizes those who have
“demonstrated significant contributions to translational research in the field
of Neuro-Psychiatric Electrophysiology and Neuroimaging.”

“It was mostly in recognition of my work on auditory hallucinations,” Derek says
modestly.

Derek has published extensively in the pursuit of understanding how auditory
hallucinations affect brain activity, and since coming to the Mount four years
ago, he has inspired the same passion in his students and encouraged their own
research— students like Erica Rudolph and Emma Ells.

“Two things have come from this award,” Derek says. “People are starting to recognize that
incredible science is happening at the Mount, and—as a big supporter of Dr.
Tamara Franz-Odendaal’s work promoting women in science— it is important for me
that people see the work that students like Erica and Emma have done and see
two incredibly bright young women doing cognitive neuroscience. The more role
models that are out there showing that this isn’t a gender-specific discipline,
the better.”

Research into early identification of schizophrenia

As Psychology Honours students, Erica and Emma made incredible contributions to
Derek’s work. This research was conducted in collaboration with Dr. Dean Salisbury from the
University of Pittsburgh, and the Nova
Scotia Early Psychosis Program and focuses specifically on schizophrenia and
psychosis, and something known as the “mismatch negativity” brainwave. The
first of these studies was recently
published in the journal Schizophrenia Research with Erica as the lead author.

“Mismatch negativity is fantastically interesting in this group, because if you
look at chronic schizophrenia patients, they really show a robust deficit in
this brainwave, and the consistency of it is remarkable, as you don’t tend to
see it in other disorders,” Derek explains.

After running three different paradigms, the research team found that when
traditional, simple paradigms are used to study the mismatch negativity
brainwave, there are no signs of deficit; however, when using a more complex
paradigm designed by Dr. Salisbury, there is a really large reduction indicated.
Excitement over the research Derek and his students have been involved in stems
from a hope that the mismatch negativity brainwave may be used as an observable
marker— an endophenotype, as it is formally called— for schizophrenia.

“An endophenotype should be able to be used to predict who is going to develop
the disease and who isn’t. While further research is needed, there is early
indication that using this newly developed paradigm, the mismatch negativity
brainwave may be an effective marker for schizophrenia.”

“The next step for us is, through the Nova Scotia Early Psychosis Program
again, and their arm through the IWK, is to look at adolescents who either have
a genetic high-risk of developing schizophrenia, or who are at clinical
high-risk,” Derek adds. “If we determine that this more complex way of
assessment can accurately predict who is going to develop schizophrenia and who
isn’t, that means we can intervene earlier, and for people with schizophrenia,
the sooner you intervene the better the prognosis.”